Caps Battle Bruins at Noon on Sunday
Caps finish weekend set of back-to-back matinee matches in Boston
The Caps finish up a set of weekend back-to-back matinee matches on Sunday afternoon in Boston when they face the Bruins at TD Garden. It's the second straight Sunday the Caps find themselves in Beantown; they were here last Sunday night when they skated off with an 8-1 win over the Bruins. Sunday afternoon's contest is the last of four the Caps will play in Boston this season.
Washington started the weekend on a strong note with a 6-3 victory over the Flyers in Philadelphia on Saturday. Alex Ovechkin scored a pair of power-play goals and John Carlson recorded a single-game career high four assists in Saturday's victory over the Flyers, Washington's fifth consecutive victory over Philly.
The win was the Caps' fourth in their last five games and their third straight road victory. Saturday's triumph followed a rare flat performance from the Caps in a 5-2 home ice loss to Buffalo on Thursday.
"Playing a Buffalo team losing that one," says Caps right wing Tom Wilson, "you've got to have a short memory and come into today and play well and be confident about our game. And I think from start to finish, guys were competing, skating hard and we definitely did enough to win tonight.
"It wasn't an easy game. [The Flyers] are making their final push here. They're a desperate club, and we were able to keep them down."
Washington limited the Flyers to just two shots on net at even strength in the first period of Saturday's game, but Philly scored on the second of those shots, tying the game at 1-1 with one second remaining in the opening period. But Dmitry Orlov scored 33 seconds into the second period and Washington never trailed. Each Philadelphia goal was answered by a Washington tally in response within three minutes.
"For the most part - up and down through the lineup - everyone played a pretty hard game tonight," says Caps right wing T.J. Oshie. "And you could see it by our puck possession, by our shots on net, and by the goals on the board."
For the third time in their last four games and the fourth time in their last six games, the Capitals' power play unit put multiple goals on the board on Saturday, going 2-for-5 with the extra man. The Caps are 10-for-25 on the power play in their last six games for a lusty 40% success rate.
"I take a lot of pride in it and we all know the importance of it," says Carlson of Washington's power play. "At the end of the day, that's what means the most and it has seemed to carry us through the last 10 or 12 games or so. We've got to keep it clicking like it has been. It's a game changer when we can execute like we have, and it certainly helps the team a lot."
Ovechkin's two goals give him 24 on the season as he pursues a 16th straight season with 30 or more goals. Career-wise, he is now one goal behind Hockey Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne (731) for fifth place on the League's all-time list.
When the Caps put that 8-1 pasting on the Bruins last week here, the Bruins were playing their fifth game in seven nights and their second in as many days. This time around, both clubs are playing for the third time in four days, but while the Caps were spending Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia, the Bruins practiced after a 3-0 whitewash of the New York Islanders in Boston on Friday.
The Bruins have rallied back after last Sunday's loss to the Capitals, winning three straight games while yielding a grand total of three goals against in the process. Boston sits fourth in the East Division, but holds two games in hand on Pittsburgh and the Islanders and has three in hand with Washington. Winning those games in hand would put the Bruins right in the thick of a four-team chase for positioning with less than a month remaining in the regular season.
Minutes after dropping last Sunday's game to the Capitals, the Bruins made a pair of trade deadline deals that have paid early dividends. Most notably, Boston acquired left wing Taylor Hall and center Curtis Lazar in a multi-player deal with Buffalo. Additionally, the Bruins added defenseman Mike Reilly in a trade with Ottawa. Reilly became the 13th different defender to suit up on an injury-riddled Boston blueline this season.
Hall has scored two goals and Lazar has one in the three games since the deals, and Reilly has two assists while averaging 22:48 per night on the Boston blueline while a number of regular defensemen recuperate from various ailments.
